Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight is a new film directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski, written by Kowalski along with Jan Kwieciński and Mirella Zaradkiewicz.
The plot of the film is that every year teens in Poland are sent to a technology free camp, called Adrenaline which is in the middle of a forest. Basically their addiction is technology so the sole purpose for them to go to the camp is to stay away from their phones.
After handing in their cell phones and computers, they are divided into groups. One of these will be made up of Zosia (Julia Wieniawa-Narkiewicz), Julek (Michael Lupa), Aniela (Wiktoria Gąsiewska), Bartek (Stanislaw Cywka) and Daniel (Sebastian Dela).
Five very different teenagers – from the reserved Zosia to the know-it-all Daniel, passing through the uninhibited Aniela – who will have Iza (Gabriela Muskala) as their guide for their adventure, who will help them forget the internet and social networks while camping. Between other characters there’s a priest (Piotr Cyrwus) and an old man (Miroslaw Zbrojewicz).
The film makes it clear since the beginning that there is a terrible threat inside a house deep into the forest. Kowalski’s skillful use of natural settings, gives the forest in which the events take place a slightly sinister air. Also, the soundtrack of Radzimir Debski takes an important part of the film.
So, Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight uses the forest to ignite chaos, giving the characters space to be separated and experience the incoming violence at different times. The movie enjoys the usual tropes, and most of the events are predictable.
The film is obviously inspired in American films, such as the classic Friday the 13th and its Jason Voorhees. The movie only seeks to entertain the older public and any fan of the horror genre.
Don’t get us wrong, the movie is fine, but there’s not much to get excited about. It’s a horror movie as it is. What we have seen before in any old horror movie and if you’re a gore fan, maybe you’ll like this one, as it is present along the movie in generous doses.
The film remains somewhere between the prudent deaths that characterized the mid-90s slasher that emerged after ‘Scream’ with the greatest savagery of the 80s. The film is a peculiar bet but one that ends up being effective.
Horror is sometimes just that, horror. So if you want to see a slasher that is going to give you what you expect from a production like this but with small distinctions, ‘Nobody sleeps in the woods tonight’ is your movie. It was released on Netflix on October 28, 2020.
Have you watched it yet?